Board member sues district, colleagues
A San Francisco school board member accused her colleagues and the school district in a suit Wednesday of retaliation, saying they violated her free speech rights by stripping her of her position as vice president and removing her from committees over tweets she posted in 2016 about Asian Americans.
In the lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco, Alison Collins seeks $72 million in general damages from the school district and the five board members who supported a noconfidence vote against her, plus $3 million in punitive damages from each of those same board members.
Collins, who declined comment about the lawsuit Wednesday, also seeks an injunction restoring her as vice president and to her committee positions. She claims in her lawsuit that board members retaliated against her because she, in her tweets as a private citizen in 2016, spoke out against the “racist harassment and racist bullying” of Black and brown students in the district. She was elected to the school board two years later.
Collins, in a series of tweets
“I think the Asian community is really hurting . ... I don’t think Alison is the source of the pain.” Arisa Hiroi, Alison Collins supporter
that included racist statements, said Asian Americans had used “white supremacist thinking to assimilate and ‘get ahead.’ ”
She wrote later in the thread: “Where are the vocal Asians speaking up against Trump? Don’t Asian Americans know they’re on his list as well?”
Using asterisks in references to the racial epithet, Collins continued, “Do they think they won’t be deported? profiled? beaten? Being a house n **** r is still being a n **** r. You’re still considered ‘the help.’ ”
Collins said in her lawsuit that the tweets were taken out of context and were not racist.
The school board, in a 52 noconfidence vote on March 25, stripped Collins, who is Black, of her role as vice president and removed her from committee assignments. Collins did not recuse herself. She and President Gabriela López opposed the actions.
Collins is suing board members Jenny Lam, Mark Sanchez, Faauuga Moliga, Kevine Boggess and Matt Alexander. Four board members did not immediately return requests for comment. Boggess said he respects Collins’ right to litigate and was seeking legal advice on how to proceed.
The lawsuit alleges that the vote violated Collins’ due process and caused her to suffer losses in income, significant loss of reputation, severe mental and emotional distress, and humiliation.
“The false narrative and assertion that Ms. Collins’ comments imploring Asian Americans to resist oppression as ‘racist’ has generated this ongoing and intensifying hostility, (causing) threats and damage to Ms. Collins reputation and threatening her and her family’s physical wellbeing,” Collins’ lawyer Charles Bonner wrote.
Bonner said while the lawsuit was filed in court, the school board has seven days to call a special session and rescind the vote and write a public apology for its actions. If board members fail to do that, on the eighth day, he said he would formally serve the board members and district with the lawsuit, and they would be forced to defend themselves in court.
Joel Paul, a constitutional law professor at UC Hastings in San Francisco, said such suits by public officials face long odds.
Even if other school board members called Collins a racist, as she alleges, they “have a First Amendment right to express their opinions,” Paul said. “She has the ability to speak her mind and defend herself,” but not seek damages for her colleagues' comments unless they include knowingly false statements of fact.
As for the board's decision to demote Collins, Paul said, “courts would be, I think, extremely reluctant to intervene in discretionary matters of an elected body.”
Collins filed the lawsuit hours before a scheduled rally to support her at the school district’s office. About 50 to 60 people listened to speakers in support of her and López.
At the event, Collins said she had no choice but to fight back against “this targeted smear to label me a racist.”
“I have committed myself and I will continue to advocate for families and especially those whose voices are often unheard and whose futures are in the balance,” she said. “Join me in making this moment count, to not let me or anyone else be swept under the rug, canceled or dismissed for speaking truth to power.”
San Francisco teacher Arisa Hiroi was among the many attending the rally, carrying a sign in support of Collins.
“I think the Asian community is really hurting,” she said. “People are taking advantage of the situation.” Critics targeted the tweets, she said, “to capitalize on the real pain the Asian American community is suffering. I don’t think Alison is the source of the pain.”
Prior to the noconfidence vote, members Lam and Moliga had asked Collins to step down, joined by 5,400 people who signed a petition saying the 2016 tweet thread “dehumanizes and divides our communities of color.”
Collins previously responded to the outrage over the tweets, saying her words had been misunderstood.
“I acknowledge that right now in this moment, my words taken out of context can be causing more pain for those who are already suffering,” she wrote. “For the pain my words may have caused I am sorry, and I apologize unreservedly.”
Critics said Collins’ statement was not sufficient.
“Many took this to be a nonapology apology, as did I,” said Nancy Tung, a member of the San Francisco Democratic Central Committee.
The tweets remained online as of Wednesday.